Eighth Harvard Student Wins Rhodes

When the Rhodes committee in Zimbabwe awarded Benjamin L. Robinson ’06-’07 a Rhodes Scholarship last month, he became the eighth Harvard student this year to receive the prestigious academic award.

The Rhodes Scholarship, created from the endowment of Cecil J. Rhodes, a British philanthropist who earned much of his fortune through colonial activities in Africa, provides Scholars with funding for two to three years of study at Oxford University in England.

Robinson, a joint Social Studies and Germanic Languages and Literatures concentrator, plans to study Philosophy at Oxford, even though he says that some people have been surprised that he “chose to study philosophy and not something more ‘practical.’”

“I think it will give me a good grounding which will enable me to return to social theory—which is my real passion,” he said in an interview with The Crimson yesterday. “I think social theory has a more important role to play than is generally recognized.”

Robinson lived in Zimbabwe until he was 16, when he was awarded a United World Scholarship to study in Norway for two years.

“My time in Norway was incredibly important to me,” he said.

Although it was “a tragic time politically in Zimbabwe,” he said he was grateful to spend two years at Red Cross Nordic United World College and see the world’s challenges from an international perspective.

In fall 2002, he enrolled at Harvard, where his experiences in Zimbabwe and Norway led him to choose Social Studies as his concentration.

In his sophomore summer, Robinson taught English to Tibetan refugee children in India, thanks to the Weissman International Internship Program.

He said that the experience made him “appreciate the importance of education.” Although it was it was he who did most of the learning there, he added.

The following summer, Robinson went to Germany and realized that he wanted to “spend some time in Europe after four years in America.”

Robinson said he plans to stay in Europe after his Rhodes studies in England conclude and eventually to come back to the U.S. to obtain a doctoral degree.